I live in a beautiful part of the UK in an area called Gloucestershire. My home is in the city of Gloucester and I love walking the urban lanes and city streets to get to my little slice of heaven. On an ordinary day it takes me around 1 hour and 1/2 to get to this tranquil haven I call ‘Gloucester’s hidden secret’. Many people who live outside Gloucester often frown upon Gloucester, some are a bit snobby and think Gloucester is just the city centre, buts it’s not, there is so much more to Gloucester.
I know many people who may live in a city may find the thought of walking so far to get into nature too much, but for me it has been a saving grace. Walking has brought me back home to my body, it has energised and brought vitality to a sluggish spirit and has allowed my intuition to strengthen through long periods of sacred solitude.
So today I am going to take you on a photographic journey of one of my favourite walks I do on an ordinary day, which by the way, is anything but ordinary to me.
Bear with me as I take you on this journey. In the beginning, some of images may seem rather uninspiring, yet beauty can be found in the strangest places and as I walk on you will see the countryside I so adore in the UK.
| After a little walk through the urban areas I reach my first taste of nature through the kissing gate onto a small track. |
 |
| Through the arches to the cow field… |
 |
| These lovely heifers and cows always greet me by a good glare each day lol! |
 |
| This is a lovely place to see bumble bees gathering nectar and to admire the smiley daisies. |
 |
| A Sea Of Daisies – scrumdiddlyumptious! |
 |
| Some days I turn right to Maisemore, some days I go left to Lower Parting, today I am going straight on, over the hill and bridge. |
 |
| The view from the bridge of the Chocolate River (I wish haha!) this is the River Severn in Gloucester it is this chocolatey red colour because it carries a lot of silts down from the high ground. |
 |
| The day began a bit cloudy but I love the beautiful shadows formed by the clouds today. The view from the bridge overlooks the city of Gloucester in the distance (I live 15 minutes walk from the cathedral). |
 |
| A closer shot of Gloucester Cathedral (where Harry Potter was filmed). |
 |
| From here I cross the road under another bridge over the motorway. |
 |
| The sky is AMAZING today! |
 |
| A little love on my path today. Lovely heart petal. |
 |
| Even along the motorway nature abounds. |
 |
| A commercial pub chain in the UK but they do the best Sunday carvery lunch. I am drooling just thinking about it! |
 |
| Over Farm Market in Gloucester (See Here ). A lovely farm shop that I have to say sells the best vanilla fudge (and rum and raison and countless others!) I have ever tasted. They also do a vanilla fudge with maltester chocolates in, yum yum! AND they sell the best cupcakes – see below. |
 |
| Just a little peek inside at the deli counter, lovely cheeses, fudge, pastries…. yum yum! |
 |
| One I bought earlier! haha! this cupcake was my idea of heaven (from Over Farm Market – see above). I bought it as a treat for implementing structure into my life. I was so proud of myself for doing so that this cake just had to be devoured. Of course my inner child had to have the most colourful one! LOL! |
 |
| Part way through my walk past Over Farm on my way to my lovely slice of heaven…. |
 |
| Today I am walking around the right side of this farmers corn field to get to my lunch view at the far top right hand corner. |
 |
| Something quite hypnotic about corn in a field…. |
 |
| Walking up the side to my seat…. I love this land….. |
 |
| *Pleasant sigh* Sat down, about to eat my digestive biscuit sandwich! Whats that you may ask? My friends concoction which I rather love. It is two digestive biscuits with a filling of thick creamy butter! oh my! (The digestive biscuit is sometimes called the sweetmeal biscuit and originated in the United Kingdom. They are frequently eaten with tea or coffee. I used to dunk mine in my tea but now I prefer to dunk it in my coffee. Do you guys and gals from other parts of the world dunk biscuits in your coffee or tea?) |
 |
| Mid-Chomp, nom nom! |
 |
| A view (my camera has been playing strange colour tricks today!). |
 |
| Me enjoying late springtime sunshine. |
 |
| Entering Lassington Woods – I love love love this place. I never saw a soul in here today. There was just me, the birds and the trees. I find it so divinely sacred. Surrounded by ancient woodland and green leaves. Birdsong surrounding me. Heaven! |
 |
| Green Lassington Woods |
 |
| This may seem unimportant to many people but this stone really grabbed my attention today. Lovely energy!
And there you go… a little trip in Kelly’s World. I hope you enjoyed the journey. . |
Share this:
Kelly Martin, author of ‘When Everyone Shines But You’ is a dedicated writer and blogger who fearlessly explores life’s deepest questions. Faced with a decade of profound anxiety and grief following the loss of her father and her best friend Michael, Kelly embarked on a transformative journey guided by mindfulness, and she hasn’t looked back since. Through her insightful writing, engaging podcasts, and inspiring You Tube channel Kelly empowers others to unearth the hidden treasures within their pain, embracing the profound truth that they are ‘enough’ exactly as they are.
Nice photos. I love Gloucestershire, particularly Cheltenham & The Cotswolds, such a beautiful part of the country. Must visit again. And I have visited Gloucester once, I love the cathedral! The English countryside is all around, wherever you go ….
Hi Andy, thanks 🙂
It is sooo beautiful, its amazing though, how many people don't like where they live. Before I started getting really present with where I was I also did not see as much beauty near where I lived. We used to drive in our car for at least 30 minutes to reach nature, when after 9 years if living here it was actually in my back yard all along lol! It took letting out car go to realise the beauty in the ordinary 😉
The Cotswolds is soooo special.
Hugs x
I have about 5 pounds of digestives on my butt from when I lived in France!
What a beautiful walk. You've inspired me to walk around my neighborhood which I love to do. Usually, I wait to go with people or I go on very slow walks with hubby and dog, but I told my husband that it's time for me just to go by myself, so I can walk as fast or slow as I want. Thanks for sharing!
Hiya Lori, LOL! Digestives can be addictive.
Glad to have inspired you to walk. Me and Mike used to walk together but I realised I tend to walk at a different pace, sometimes fast sometimes slow and I tend to observe what is around me more. Mikes more of a power walker a lot of the time. Solitude is very beneficial.
Hugs xxx
Okay, as the Amerrrrican here I have to ask, what are digestives?
Hehe! Hi Carol, well, I think in America you mainly have cookies and where in the UK we have American cookies we also have many variations of sweet biscuits. Digestives are a sweet biscuit I think maybe you call biscuits, crackers? I found this amusing blog online talking about British food, from I think an American who may be able to define it a little better for me. It makes me chuckle at how he describes our culinary interests hehe!
BritsFood
Hope this answers your question 🙂
Sorry about that link did not work hopefully it will work this time:
Brits Food
Beautiful! What a nice walk. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for clearing up the "digestives" confusion 😉
Hiya Marla, glad the digestive biscuit is now cleared up lol! so do you dunk crackers in your tea/coffee? if not have you ever tried it? is it crackers? was that link correct? if you do, watch the length of time you do it as too long and it dissolves but just the right amount it soaks up the flavour of the tea (or coffee in my case). Hugs x
Yes, that link was correct 🙂 I do dunk my cookies/crackers in tea, and coffee when I still drank it. But what I really love to do is dunk them in milk (or in my case, soy milk 😉 It is a challenge trying to reach that fine line between just enough liquid to keep the cookie together or too much as it falls apart.
My ex boyfriend used to just break his cookies into a few pieces and drop them in his milk. Then he'd drink the milk a bit and dig the pieces out with a spoon 🙂
OOOH dunking in milk sounds nice Marla! we have an advert for Oreo Cookies on tv at the moment where competitions are being ran by a granny and her grandaughter to see how many or how quickly a cookie can be eaten while dunking in milk. I have never tried it. Your ex boyfriend likes cookies lol! I must say I don't like to waste biscuits if they drop in I must get a spoon to get them out lol!
Gloucestershire is such a beautiful place, I was there last week for a Wedding. Lovely pictures – the cupcake and the buiscuit sandwich ones are doing nothing to help my diet though!!!
Lovely blog1
Hi Scarletwonderland, lovely to have you drop by. I agree Gloucestershire is so beautiful and so many people here don't see past the end of their garden, their loss lol!
Oh that cupcake makes me drool every single time I see it on the page and I have been eaten far too many digestives lately lol!
Thanks again for commenting xxx
Hi Kelly I like your photos they are so beautiful. Is it okay if I used the biscuit photo as a forum signature 😀 ??
Hiya Light, thanks, yes feel free to use my biscuit photo, what forum are you on?
Hugs x
Thank you so much Kelly 🙂 Just a few Arabic general discussion forums. I've been searching for a while for a nice biscuit photo to write this on it
http://www.m5zn.com/uploads/2011/6/30/photo/063011140654dcckea6y0kt09ug81.jpg
and your photo is perrrfect for this message ^-^
I swear i could smell the green & feel the sun a bit here haha. Beautiful area, Kelly. What more do we need!